American Legion commander praises Kansas

By RYAN CHRISTNER

rchristner@dailynews.net

Engaging in the traditional practice of meeting face-to-face with American Legion members in each state, National Commander Clarence Hill spoke to a gathering of locals at Post No. 173 in Hays on Wednesday.

Hill, a retired Navy captain who hails from Jacksonville, Fla., is in his 27th year of membership with the American Legion, the nation's largest wartime veteran's service organization. He was elected national commander in August.

After arriving in Kansas on Sunday, he made numerous appearances throughout the state and concluded his series of visits Thursday before leaving this morning for New York.

Sandwiched between a lunch stop in WaKeeney and a dinner date in Salina, Hill's visit to the Hays post included a 15-minute talk on the national state of veterans affairs.

Addressing the issue of health care reform, Hill said the American Legion is watching closely the development of legislation in Congress and is working hard to ensure that, whatever the outcome, benefits provided through Tricare and the Department of Veterans Affairs are protected.

Hill also was excited to discuss the passage and signing of legislation that will provide for medical expenses in the VA's budget throughout 2011, despite government spending being frozen at 2008 levels.

"They will have a medical budget, and they won't have to do the hiring freezes or cut back services or whatever they have to do to stay within last year's fiscal guidelines," he said prior to addressing the crowd.

Before his talk, Hill also briefly discussed national concerns about the availability of medical treatment in rural areas.

"Mobile vans are good to a point," he said. "But you can't depend on mobile vans to reach the rural residents."

The majority of the conversation, however, focused on the American Legion's present and future recruiting efforts.

This year, the organization had a membership goal of 55 percent of the nation's veteran population. That goal had a deadline of last week, and Hill said Kansas was tops in the country with 70.7 percent of its veterans.

In a close second, less than 1 percent behind, is Nebraska.

"Kansas is leading the way," he said.

Recruitment is the "hardest easy job" there is, Hill told the crowd of about eight members of local American Legion, Legion Riders and Sons of the American Legion chapters.

"You can talk to any legionnaire, and they can tell you chapter and verse about how great we are," he said, " ... (but) ask them how many they've recruited: zero, one.

"So, there's apparently something hard about what I consider the easy job of recruiting people into the American Legion."

Kansas' membership statistics, however, make that job seem like a walk in the park. While that makes Hill happy, he said any recruitment secrets Kansas members might be using are closely guarded.

In a conference last week with commanders from across the country, Hill attempted to find out just how such numbers were being obtained.

"I asked them if they all wanted to share what they were doing that was making this year a success, and nobody said anything," he said. "When I left, I said, 'Well, I don't know what you're doing, but it's successful, so keep on doing it.' "

Areas the American Legion continues to heavily recruit from include women, minorities and Vietnam veterans.

Those being sought the hardest, though, are younger veterans.

Recruiting youth requires a different approach than veterans of former wars, Hill said, which is why the American Legion has stepped up its use of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

It also is launching a new Web site the week of Veterans Day, which it promises to be easier to navigate.

"We have to adapt to their way of thinking and to the things they are interested in," Hill said, "whether it be adventure activities or whether it be Wi-Fi at your post or having a mini Internet cafe in your post or having a daycare, or something like that.

"I tell everybody the American Legion has got to embrace the Internet and get out there and be available on the Internet."

Doing so, he said, will increase the exposure of the organization by making it available to every friend and contact on the networks of members who make the effort to use those mediums.

"Somewhere in all of those networks are veterans that'll see the good things the American Legion is doing," Hill said. "We don't have a reputation if you all don't create it."